This summer semester, the Chair of Marketing Management (IfM) lead by Professor Manfred Krafft collaborated with the Practical Computer Science Group lead by Professor Kuchen and offered a project seminar in cooperation with Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG.

Together with Porsche’s Marketing department, five current and relevant topics around “The Role of the My Porsche App Across the Customer Lifecycle” invited the Master students from Marketing and Information Systems to connect scientific methodologies with a practice-oriented project.

In April, the seminar was initiated with an online kick-off meeting via Zoom in which Prof. Dr. Manfred Krafft presented the seminar outline and requirements. Dr. Stephan Nass, Head of Marketing Capabilities & Channels and Dominique Tascioglu, Head of Sales & Loyalty Communications, introduced the company to the audience and presented the seminar challenge in an information systems related context. Subsequently, the groups met their respective supervisors in individual breakout sessions to clarify immediate questions and discuss initial thoughts on the assigned topic. To lay the basis for proper research approaches, Prof. Krafft additionally offered a Q&A session on How to Write an Empirical Paper to convey relevant scientific knowledge on managing the upcoming practical tasks.

All groups adjusted rapidly to work together, being regularly mentored by their respective Porsche supervisors and the accompanying research assistants, Nicole Moch, M.Sc., Christina Oktousidou, M.Sc., Dipl.-Kffr. Janina Wiebringhaus (all Marketing) and Nina Herrmann, M.Sc. (IS). In the middle of the semester everyone very much enjoyed to finally meet in person for the interim presentations in the castle of Münster. In their presentations the students gave a brief overview about their research progress and an outlook on their project plans.

For the final presentations in July Porsche invited the seminar group to the Porsche headquarter in Stuttgart and organized a very nice program. The 1 ½ days started with the presentations of the five groups, followed by an original Swabian dinner and drinks in the central heart of Stuttgart. The day after, the Porsche HR team gave an overview of career opportunities and the unique working culture at Porsche. The time at Porsche ended with a true highlight. The students were given an insightful and impressive tour in the Porsche Museum.

All of these experiences taken together this year’s project seminar was a full success driven by motivational spirit and engagement. The Porsche advisors appreciated the high quality of all presentations: “Working intensively together with the prestigious and famous company Porsche, this seminar opened a wide range of development opportunities for us students. We were allowed to work on highly relevant opportunities that Porsche is currently facing in the context of the My Porsche app. During the seminar, we learnt a lot about the automotive industry but also dived into completely new topics by identifying and analysing technological trends. This highly broadened our horizon. Also within our assigned project groups consisting of both Information systems and Marketing students we learnt a lot. Everyone brought in their diverse knowledge and experiences what led the whole group to developing creative ideas for Porsche. Bringing together different perspectives and preferences into one project improved both our project’s results and our team working skills. All in all, I am very thankful for the opportunity to grow personally and professionally by making these inspiring and valuable experiences.”

The seminar group in front of the Porsche Museum.